Eruption of Vesuvius, 1867-8. 25 



from Ro.iie ; it was about six o'clock in the evening, when we 

 spied through the dimniet to the south of us a dark mountain side 

 against a deep red glare, as of some mighty bonfire. You may 

 fancy we did not take our eyes off it for long together till we 

 found ourselves standing on the quay in front of the Hotel de 

 Russie, and facing us, across the northern angle of the bay 

 though still seven miles or more off, the beautiful lava-streaked 

 cone of Vesuvius. 



The Volcano had not long recommenced action, having for a 

 time after its first eruption in the autumn, apparently exhausted its 

 energy. We were told that previously there were no streams of 

 fire to be seen on the mountain side, but simply a grand fountain 

 of red hot stones and lava, made all the more splendid by contrast 

 with the snow which whitened the cone : but now the snow was 

 gone; a lurid cloud rested on the summit, and from the fringe of the 

 cloud seemingly over the edge of the crater, there issued a river of 

 fire which almost immediately split into two separate streams, and 

 these uniting again half way down the mountain, formed some- 

 thing like a red hot tail to a red hot kite. This fiery tail at the 

 time we reached Naples turned in the direction of what is called 

 the Hermitage, a lonely building which stands on a spur of the 

 mountain between two deep gullies. During the day tin)e there 

 was little to be seen but an angry cloud, but no sooner did the sun 

 set, than the lava streams which before were only to be dis- 

 tinguished by lines of vapour hovering over them, glowed and 

 sparkled with all the semblance of a fiery cascade. Sometimes 

 when the outline of the mountain was obscured, and nothing was 

 to be seen but the gaping glaring wound on its front, one might 

 have fancied it a flash of forked lightning, caught and stamped 

 on the face of some lowering storm-cloud. We were not lucky in 

 our weather. One day passed and two days passed, and still we 

 had been unable to set foot on the mountain, but late in the 

 evening of the second day, the sky cleared, and we made our first 

 expedition. A drive of something over an hour brought us to 

 Resina, a town at the base of Vesuvius, which covers the ruins of 

 Herculaneum. Here we took a guide and began our trudge : first 

 up an interminable stony lane with vineyards and orchards on 

 either side, then to the left along a narrow path from which one 

 looks down over the bay and the city, and the village-dotted 

 plain, and exclaims "E bella!" and then along a zigzag 

 path which crosses the lava of 1859. This vast torrent issued 

 from several craters, which rose in that year on the side 

 of the cone, and parting into two streams flooded the two 

 gullies on either side of the mountain spur of which I spoke 

 before, almost filling up the Fosso Grande, which is the name 



